Weight Problems Expanding in Europe

Posted on Dec 7, 2010

Sad but apparently true: Europeans are gaining on Americans. According to a newly released study, more than half of the adult European population is overweight, and their kids aren’t exactly fitness champs either. —KA

AFP via Google News:

More than half of European adults are now overweight and too many children smoke or are obese, raising the risk of cancer or heart attacks, a European health report showed Tuesday.

Just over 15 percent of adults in the European Union are obese, a rate that has more than doubled over the past 20 years in most EU states, the study found.

The obesity rate ranges from less than 10 percent in Romania and Italy to more than 20 percent in Britain, Ireland and Malta, said the report issued by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).